Characters
Jimmy’s name after the plague?
Snowman
What are the Compounds?
The Compounds are protected corporate communities where scientists and their families live.
What online game do Jimmy and Crake play that focuses on extinct animals?
Extinctathon
What are pigoons?
Genetically modified pigs created to grow human organs.
What major theme connects violent media, the Crakers, and corporate science?
The loss of humanity.
What is Crake’s real first name
Glenn
What are the pleeblands?
The pleeblands are unsafe, poorer areas outside the corporate Compounds.
What does desensitization mean?
becoming less emotionally affected by something after being exposed to it many times.
What are the Crakers?
Genetically engineered humans created by Crake.
Why is storytelling important after the plague?
Storytelling helps Snowman explain the world to the Crakers and gives meaning to what happened.
Who is Oryx?
Oryx is a woman connected to both Jimmy and Crake, and she helps teach the Crakers.
What organization acts like police/security in the novel?
CorpSeCorps.
How do Jimmy and Crake react to violent content after watching it repeatedly?
They become less shocked by it and begin treating it like entertainment.
What is the BlyssPluss pill supposed to offer people?
It is advertised as giving pleasure, protection from disease, and other benefits.
How does the novel show that technology can be dangerous?
It shows that technology becomes dangerous when people use it without morality, responsibility, or empathy.
Why is Jimmy important to the Crakers after the plague?
He becomes their guide and protector, explaining the world to them through stories about Oryx and Crake.
What does the difference between the Compounds and the pleeblands show?
It shows inequality, class division, and how corporations control people’s safety and opportunities.
How does violent media affect Jimmy’s view of Oryx?
It makes it harder for him to fully see her as a real person, because he first experiences her through a screen and as an image.
What is the real danger of BlyssPluss?
It spreads the plague that wipes out most of humanity.
What does Oryx represent in the novel?
Oryx represents exploitation, mystery, survival, and how people can be reduced to images or stories by others.
What does Jimmy’s obsession with Oryx reveal about him?
It shows that he wants emotional connection, but he often sees Oryx more as an image or idea than as a full person.
Why does Atwood create such an extreme future world?
To warn readers about problems already existing in the real world, like corporate power, technology without ethics, environmental damage, and media violence.
What is Atwood criticizing through Jimmy and Crake’s online viewing habits?
she is criticizing a society where violence, exploitation, and suffering become entertainment instead of something people morally question.
What does Crake’s creation of the Crakers show about his view of humanity?
It shows that he sees humans as flawed and believes they can be redesigned through science.
What warning does Atwood give through the destruction of humanity?
She warns that if society values profit, entertainment, and scientific power over ethics, it can destroy itself.